Through the Pillars of Hercules

2nd – 5th September

I woke up to find that the boat was covered with fine Saharan sand… so much for cleaning it yesterday….. anyway I left Barbate around ten and motored until the wind picked up a couple of hours later, I had to keep a sharp lookout as all along this coast are a number huge tuna nets which are moored between unlit cardinal buoys from March till October so no napping today! The tidal stream runs at 1 to 3 knots in and out of the Med so I had to time my approach otherwise I wasn’t going to make any headway; all went well and I rounded the most southerly point on the Iberian peninsular, the Tarifa light, which is behind the big ferry, entering the busy shipping lanes of the Straits. I am now running North East all the way to Palma……hooray!......so now going in the wrong direction anymore.
Between Tarifa and Gibraltar there was another fire on the hillside being fought by two planes and several helicopters…..the fire was winning hands down………..the resultant smoke was streaming east and covered Gibraltar nearly ruining my photo.
The next photo is of the southern pillar of Hercules in Morocco and as I turned into Gibraltar bay I saw about twenty flying fish off my beam, they appeared and glided for about 3 or 4 seconds then disappeared……..fantastic!!! Gibraltar bay is full of anchored ships both by Gibraltar and across off Algerciras where there is a huge smelly petrochemical plant apparently built by Franco after he closed the border so that the fumes would smother the Gibraltarians!
I’m in Marina Bay marina which is so close to the runway that I can toss a stone onto it but fortunately there are only about 6 planes a day and they stop about 8 p.m. so it’s not a problem. I moored and a very nice lady came over with a cold beer to welcome me and then her shipmate Mark invited me to join them on board their boat for a curry and a few beers…..a great night…… they are sailing down to the Canaries then over to the Caribbean for Christmas with 225 other boats on the annual ARC rally.
I woke today to the sound of RAIN…..strange to say but its rained here every day…..just like Manchester then. The plan was to take the cable car up the mountain but low cloud and rain has scuppered that so I’m preparing for the next leg now along the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca before crossing to Ibiza where Debbie is joining me for the final leg to Palma; I will have to hurry a long to be there in time so I will probably anchor much of the way which means it may be some time before I can post another chapter but I’ll make up for it in Ibiza.